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OTTAWA - The Black Eyed Peas tantalized an Ottawa Bluesfest crowd for way longer than would represent fashionably late last night.
The four band members, seen performing at most award shows over the last year, and their four-piece backup band didn't take the stage until 45 minutes after their scheduled start.
That gave a young, excited crowd -- it was announced there were 15,000 packed into Festival Plaza -- lots of time to pound beers and pump themselves up for the Peas' particular brand of peppy, punky, phunk.
What a night. Those Peas aren't famous for nothing.
The fabulous four bounded onto the stage, Allan "alp.de.ap" Pineda in the form of multiple backflips.
Stacey "Fergie" Ferguson showed off her famous don't mess-with-me strut; Will "will.i.am" Adams got the crowd yelling with his simple "let me hear you say ohhhh;" and Jaime "Taboo" Gomez wore his homemade Nikes.
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Though the Peas are best remembered in Ottawa for a sold-out, no-holds-barred show at the Capital Music Hall just before their third album, Elephunk, exploded last year, they were nowhere near the orbit they're in now.
You wouldn't have known that last night, when Adams asked who knew about them before Elephunk and nearly everyone in the audience, it seemed, screamed back that they had.
No matter, as Adams claimed later, Ottawa's a "bleeping dope ass place to play bleep-bleepers."
Though it seemed like the Peas hadn't even gotten started by press time -- I was looking forward to a little Let's Get Retarded myself -- they did blow it out of the park during their first 45 minutes on stage.
During Shut Up, Will and Fergie battled out vocally and gymnastically on stage.
Her characteristic wail -- a tribute, she said "to anyone who's ever been in a f---ed up, unhealthy relationship" -- beat out Will every time.
So did the four, one-handed cartwheels. One-handed because she was singing and holding the microphone at the time.
Then Will broke into a killer Michael Jackson moonwalk to the Billie Jean backbeat, before sparking cheers when he stopped, explaining "too many kids in the audience." Heck, Gomez said he's going to marry an Ottawa girl.
They dipped far back early on, to the dope-dedicated Joints & Jam from 1998's pre-Fergie Behind the Front. And they electrified with tunes from their new album Monkey Business, including the dare-you-not-to-bop Pump It.
In between were more shoutouts to Ottawa than surely any other act to play here has ever given -- and a share of self-referencing that will only be beaten when Kid Rock hits town next Friday. The Peas were a top-notch, don't-miss act.
"Where is the Love," screeched Will, before introducing the band's peace-loving tune from Elephunk. "The love is in Canada."